Talk:A/@comment-24435238-20170818163321
I know the series is over, but there is so much unexplained, especially as I rewatch previous seasons (especially season 3), and there are too many red herrings and unanswered questions that result in me coming up with my own conclusions, even if they aren't canon. So here is who I think was apart of the A-Team per season, with explainations: Season 1 - Mona (leader) and Lucas Season 2 - Mona (leader) and Lucas Season 3 - Cece (leader), Wilden (second-in-command), Wren (third-in-command). Cece wanted an army, so she had two different teams: those that didn't know her identity (Mona, Toby, and Spencer), and those that did know her identity (Jenna, Shana, Noel, and Sara (joined towards the end of season 3)). Melissa was also apart of the team for 3x13. Season 4 - Cece (leader), Wren (second-in-command), Noel and Sara Season 5 - Cece (leader), Wren (only once, in the episode where Spencer went to London), Noel and Sara Season 6a - Cece (leader), Noel and Sara Season 6b - Alex (leader), Wren (second-in-command), Noel, Jenna and Sara (none of these three knew Alex's identity) Season 7 - Alex (leader), Wren (second-in-command), Mary (second-in-command after Wren died), Noel, Jenna and Sara (again, none of them knew); Mona for the finale; and Sydney and Aria were blackmailed Now for the explanations: Mona, Cece, Alex, Toby, Spencer, Aria, Sydney and Mary - I don't need to explain. Lucas - Again, not much of an explanation, but he was recruited by Cece in 3B to join her army (especially since they used to be friends), but when he refused, Toby was sent to run him over. Wilden - He's known since Ali disappeared that Cece hit her, and since he was an accomplice, he did everything in his power to keep his nose clean, which included helping Cece restart the A game in order to make him one step ahead of the Liars. However, his plan was falling apart when he was accused of getting Ali pregnant, so he was starting to turn on Cece, which forced her to kill him. During this time, Garrett found out somehow that Wilden was involved in Ali's "death" and he was killed for it, blackmailing Melissa to help him push the box over the train. Which leads me to... Melissa - She kept getting blackmailed for being A (Black Swan, Queen of Hearts, etc), and was always in getting the finger pointed to her (like when Cece said that Melissa took the photo at Cape May, when Wren accused Cece and Melissa of being friends or something, etc). She was always trying to protect Spencer for assumingly killing Bethany/Ali, but when she suspected that a new A was tormenting the girls, she put together her own team, with current A-Team members Jenna and Shana, who themselves never trusted Cece, to put a stop to it all. However, Jenna and Shana backstabbed Melissa by setting the lodge on fire to kill the Liars, and framed it on Wilden. Which leads me to... Jenna and Shana - Shana was Ali's friend, and knew she was alive. She was sent to Rosewood to spy for Ali, but she fell in love with Jenna and probably told her Ali was alive. Jenna and Shana were recruited in 3B to join Cece's army when she figured that they'd want revenge against the girls, not knowing that they already know Ali was alive. Which explains why they helped Wilden after he was run over by Ashley, and why Shana said that Jenna was afraid of Cece. After they had their own agenda by burning down the lodge, Cece saught revenge on the two of them by drowning Jenna and attacking Shana in 4B. By the end of season 3, Cece lost most of her army (Mona, Toby, Spencer, Wilden, Jenna and Shana), so she recruited... Sara Harvey - I explained my theory on why Sara joined Cece's team on Sara's page, but in short, Cece had suspicions that Ali was alive and investigated a missing blonde just like how Hanna investigated and found Sara's friends in 4B. Cece found Sara in 3B around the time Wilden was acting crazy, and recruited her in exchange for money and a place to live (Cece was moving out of her apartment, that she used as a getaway house while she was sneaking out of Radley). By season 4, Sara only had Wren, Sara and Noel on her payroll. Noel - Maybe he was blackmailed. Maybe he was a twisted POS. I don't know. But he helped Cece torment the girls all the way to season 6. And when Cece and Ali were working together in season 4, Cece "blackmailed" Noel into being Ali's helper so she can stay one step ahead of Ali. Wren - I believe he is mentally ill, just like his family members, and that he was charmed by Cece while he worked at Radly into helping her set her revenge scheme. He had a bone to pick with the Hastings sisters anyways, so he agreed to help Cece sneak into Mona's room. He ended up reconciling with Melissa sometime in season 4/5, so he stopped helping Cece, and moved to London to leave all the BS behind (although he did help get a vile of blood in Spencer's purse). Now, with regards to seasons 6B and 7, Alex wanted to avenge Cece's death by creating her own team, consisting of Wren (who knew her secret and was in love with her), and Mary a year later, as well as people from Cece's old team: Noel, Sara and Jenna (who did not know Alex's identity). Noel and Sara helped Alex for Cece's money, while Jenna (who reconciled with Cece during the timejump) helped Alex in exchange for eye surgery. So pretty much, only Alex and Wren wanted to avenge Cece, while Noel, Sara and Jenna did it for money-purposes. Sydney and Aria were blackmailed of course. And Mona was used as a puppet in the finale so she can take over the game. And of course, Archer acted alone in his revenge scheme against Alison. SO THIS IS A MESS, but it's what I'm sticking with in order to fill in a lot of the missing pieces.